The present invention relates to auction systems where a user specifies parameters of an item for sale in the auction system and where bidders submit offers for the items for auction.
Glossary
The terms used below are provided to facilitate the understanding of the concepts that are used throughout the claims and specification. It is not meant to in any way limit or constrain the scope but is instead intended to provide representative examples and definitions to assist the readers in their understanding of the present invention. Other examples may additionally be defined in the body of the specification or may be known equivalents in the art for each of these terms.
auctionxe2x80x94any dynamic pricing system for sale and purchase of goods and services, where the ultimate price paid by a buyer is not set in advance by the seller, but rather a function of demand and supply as determined during the selling process. An auction may involve buyers competitively bidding for goods and services, sellers competitively offering goods and services, or buyers and sellers converging on a mutually agreeable price and quantity of goods and services to be exchanged.
closing eventsxe2x80x94any or all of a set of events which may cause an auction to close. These events may include, but are not limited to, some or all of the following: fixed time expiration; period of bidding inactivity; secret or published xe2x80x9csudden deathxe2x80x9d price hit, where the xe2x80x9csudden deathxe2x80x9d price may be established prior to the auction or change as a function of auction bidding activity; cancellation of the auction either by the Seller, the remote auction service, or the multi auction service.
itemxe2x80x94Any marketable product, service or commodity that can be adequately described and that has a negotiable value discoverable through an auction process. The item may be described and characterized by parameters including quantitative and qualitative values such as a measure of size, shape, weight, quantity, condition, age, uniqueness, etc.
bidderxe2x80x94An entity supplying a bid, either directly or through an agent or network or agents. An agent may be another entity or computer agent. A bidder may be entering bids in real time either directly or through his agent, or may have prespecified a set of rules so that his agent can bid automatically for him.
sellerxe2x80x94An entity which may be an individual, company, agent or any third party that may have in their possession or represent the interests of an owner of an item that may be offered for sale at auction, either directly or through an agent.
replicated bidxe2x80x94a bid or bids detected by the multi-auction service for an item at one or more remote auction auction services, which is subsequently transmitted to one or more other remote auction services that did not receive the bid. In substance, the bid replication process allows the optimal bid to appear in all auctions for the item being auctioned as if the original bidder had himself entered identical bids in all auctions for the item. The replicated bid may nominally be identified as coming from the original bidder, coming from the multi-auction service or coming from any other third party.
currencyxe2x80x94Any unit of exchange and measure of value, including hard currencies and barter items. Bids in different currencies are compared by using tables managed by the remote auction service. Exchange values may be supplied by the seller, or by a third party and may reflect either real time conversions using guaranteed exchange rates, or alternatively an estimated exchange rate may be employed that is used only for calculation purposes where the real exchange rate is subject to change until the actual closure of the transaction.
memoryxe2x80x94The memory means may comprise any type of storage media that may support the recording of the interactions of the service. This may comprise paper records, hard disk storage, random access memory, or any removable or non-removable media that is accessible either directly or remotely by the service. The content of memory would typically comprise, but not be limited to,any or all of the following: information on current and prior bid activity; item selling parameters; seller, bidder or remote auction service profile information, interface protocols and contact information; relative value and auction offering rules specified by the seller, bidder, Multi-Auction Service or remote auction services; transaction data; and marketing data. The memory is accessed by the multi-auction service to record transactions and to provide data which may be analyzed to determine the optimum selling or bidding parameters for an item or item type where the optimized data may be stored in addition to the raw bid information collected.
multi-auction servicexe2x80x94System of people, computers and communications systems that coordinate the auction listing, bid replication and auction management process. Typically maintains history of item bids and offers, and identifies categories for auction items. Provides means for bidders or sellers to specify parameters of the bidding and selling process such that the multi-auction service acts as an agent for either the bidder or seller to achieve an optimal bid price and set of transactions from the client""s perspective.
optimal bidderxe2x80x94The optimal bidder will usually be the entity that submits the nominally highest bid to the seller and lowest offer for the buyer, but may be adjusted under certain circumstances. For example, if the highest bidder has a questionable credit rating or closing history, or the highest bidder is using a credit card so that his bid needs to be adjusted downward by the processing fees, the nominally highest bid may not be the optimal bid. A database of bidder performance statistics (closing rates, timeliness, seller feedback, etc.) can be factored into the xe2x80x9coptimal bidxe2x80x9d selection process in order to determine an adjusted bid. When a buyer is using the multi-auction service to achieve an optimal price that is the lowest price, the item offered with the lowest bid may have excessive shipping charges or other ancillary fees that may additionally need to be factored into the bid price as an adjustment. In the case where multiple items are auctioned using a Dutch auction format, the term Optimal Bidder will be used to describe the set of submitting winning bids.
remote auction servicexe2x80x94an entity hosting an auction or facilitating the sale of items in an auction style format where the price is a function of demand and supply. May be electronic (eBay, Yahoo, Amazon) or physical (Sotheby""s, Christies). May be domestic or international, general or niche specific. The remote auction service need not be a registered auctioneer. It may operate in a manual mode or in a highly computerized mode of operation with respect to the management of an auction. For purposes of this set of specification and claims, if an item appears at a single remote auction service in multiple independent auctions, each instance of the item at a remote auction service is considered a separate and independent remote auction service.
reserve pricexe2x80x94a minimum price that a Seller will accept for an item, or a minimum amount a Seller will accept for a batch of similar or dissimilar items.
selling parametersxe2x80x94any or all of a set of parameters describing an Item and how it is to be offered in an auction including, but not limited to, some or all of the following: item description which may comprise in addition to text in various languages, graphic and audio representation such as image file, photograph, audio file, video clip or other content that provides a representation of the item; quantity of items offered or desired; starting date and time; applicable closing events; reserve price; starting bid; expected bid range; auction format (e.g. standard, Dutch, etc); physical item location and shipping arrangements; optimal bid adjustment procedures and currency conversion tables; selling restrictions (e.g. no international, etc.). These parameters may be defined by the seller with assistance by the multi-auction service or may be generated exclusively by the multi-auction service or seller alone.
In the case of xe2x80x9creversexe2x80x9d auctions where a buyer provides parameters for an item to be purchased and sellers offer competitively at successively lower prices to provide the item, the term xe2x80x9cselling parametersxe2x80x9d should be understood to be those parameters provided by the prospective buyer which describe the item to be purchased and the auction process in which sellers will compete to provide the good or service in question.
Prior art auction methods require a seller to contact an auction service in order to place an item for sale through an auction process. The item is typically transferred to an auction location prior to the auction date. Bidders assemble on the auction date and bid on items of interest. Electronic enhancements have been made to the auction process to allow remote bidders and sellers to engage in auctions for items. These enhancements have typically involved facilitating the auction process while keeping the same general foundation where a user offers a product for auction through an intermediary (auctioneer) that executes the auction and receives bids for the item. At the end of a specified period of time or when no further bids are received, the intermediary closes the auction to further bidding and the highest bidder pays for and receives the item. While the seller and bidder may be represented by other parties, the ultimate control of the auction is performed in a centralized manner where the auctioneer runs the process.
Prior art electronic auction systems on the World Wide Web have implemented a similar methodology to allow more widespread visibility of items to be auctioned to allow sellers to submit items for auction on-line where user""s bids from around the world may be received and recorded as the auction progresses. The seller contacts an auction service to indicate that an item is available for sale. The seller identifies the item and specifies the parameters of the auction. The actual auction process is executed by the auction service in accordance with the seller or auctioneer specified rules for the auction of that item. The item does not have to be located where the auction is run, but in order to guarantee the integrity of the auction so that the winning bidder is able to purchase the item, the auction service must have the exclusive right to offer the item. When the auction is over, the highest bidder is contacted and the goods are shipped from the seller to the highest bidder. The terms for the sale are specified in the auction, but the coordination of the shipping is usually arranged between the buyer and seller although some sites provide shipping as an extra service.
In order for a seller to use the auction site, the seller must register and provide an item description. The auction sites may require that sellers provide some means of authentication that the items represented are of the quality described. Different auction sites may have different forms of verification or may require that the item be submitted or shipped to the auction site prior to auction. For those sites that do not require shipping the product prior to auction, the shipping of the product may be arranged between the seller and the buyer or facilitated by the auction service.
While these auction sites provide a means for sellers to offer goods for sale, the seller has to determine the single best auction site for the product to be sold. The seller may receive substantially more or less than expected depending on the number of bidders and what they are willing to pay. The seller can not list an item on more than one site because the winning bidder in each auction rightfully expects to be able to buy the item, of which the seller has only one. Unless a seller is willing to xe2x80x9cdefaultxe2x80x9d, the seller is currently limited to choosing a single auction site for any particular item. It is therefore to the benefit of the seller to choose the best auction site for that type of product. The best site may be the site that has the most user traffic, or it may be a specialized site that offers items for sale in limited classes of products. For example, a coin collector could offer a highly desirable coin for sale at a general auction site such as Ebay, or alternatively the coin collector may choose to place the coin at an auction site that caters to knowledgeable coin buyers. Other services may be provided to show the seller the price of similar products. This may require the seller to investigate different web sites to determine which auction site has the most traffic or has sold similar items at the highest price.
The final sale price is ultimately dependent on the number of bidders for a product at that site and the visibility of that item among all the items being offered at that site. A seller hoping to receive the highest price is therefore limited to the users accessing that web site that are bidding on that product. Auction services have provided users with different means to increase the visibility of the item to be sold by establishing classification methods that allow the user""s item to be more frequently retrieved by the search engine. The user typically pays an added amount for preferred placement of their item on the web pages generated. These aspects of placement, while providing better visibility on that web site do not offer the visibility beyond that auction server.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,835,896, METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROCESSING AND TRANSMITTING ELECTRONIC AUCTION INFORMATION, assigned to OnSale Inc., discloses an automated system used for auctions on the Internet where the buyer submits bids to the system which validates the bids and ultimately notifies the successful bidder(s) when the auction is over. During the auction process, the server updates the page image stored on the server so new users requesting the page see the most recent bid information. Recently outbid users are notified via email of higher bids. Users may also be represented by automated processes that bid incrementally in an automated fashion up to a predefined user specified value. Different auction types are supported such as Standard Auction, Dutch Auction, and Progressive Auction. A bid closing process called xe2x80x9cFloating Closing Timexe2x80x9d is additionally disclosed whereby inactivity for a period of time will end the auction of the item prior to the fixed closing time specified in the auction.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,890,138 COMPUTER AUCTION SYSTEM, assigned to Bid.Com International Inc., discloses another Internet based auction system where users access a central database of products to purchase items from a quantity of similar items. The timeframe of the offer is strictly controlled and a number of items are offered where the price decreases until all of the items are sold or until the timeframe of the sale expires. The system updates the displayed availability information at periodic intervals where the period is shortened as the sale comes to an end.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,905,975, COMPUTER IMPLEMENTED METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR AUCTIONS, discloses an auction system where users may define bidding rules that are subsequently enforced throughout the bidding process for an item, thus allowing users to control the amount of time that they are required to devote to the bidding process. The user""s system and the auctioneers system communicate automatically to determine how the bidding is incremented according to the rules defined. Complex rules may be implemented where the user may specify quantities of an item to be purchased at various prices.
While these auction sites provide a means for sellers to offer goods for sale, the seller has to determine the single best auction site for the product to be sold. The seller may receive substantially more or less than expected depending on the number of bidders and what they are willing to pay. The seller can not list an item on more than one site because the winning bidder in each auction rightfully expects to be able to buy the item, of which the seller has only one. Unless a seller is willing to xe2x80x9cdefaultxe2x80x9d, the seller is currently limited to choosing a single auction site for any particular item. It is therefore to the benefit of the seller to choose the best auction site for that type of product. The best site may be the site that has the most user traffic, or it may be a specialized site that offers items for sale in limited classes of products. For example, a coin collector could offer a highly desirable coin for sale at a general auction site such as Ebay, or alternatively the coin collector may choose to place the coin at an auction site that caters to knowledgeable coin buyers. Other services may be provided to show the seller the price of similar products. This may require the seller to investigate different web sites to determine which auction site has the most traffic or has sold similar items at the highest price.
The final sale price is ultimately dependent on the number of bidders for a product at that site and the visibility of that item among all the items being offered at that site. A seller hoping to receive the highest price is therefore limited to the users accessing that web site that are bidding on that product. Auction services have provided users with different means to increase the visibility of the item to be sold by establishing classification methods that allow the user""s item to be more frequently retrieved by the search engine. The user typically pays an added amount for preferred placement of their item on the web pages generated. These aspects of placement, while providing better visibility on that web site do not offer the visibility beyond that auction server.
What is desired therefore is a methodology of placing an item for auction that has access to and is visible through more than one auction service at the same time where the bids received by any of the auction services affect and are coordinated with each other, such that each service receives and reflects the highest price for that item received by any of the participating auction services.
The objective of the invention is to provide increased visibility of an item to be auctioned by mirroring the item to be offered through a plurality of remote auction services simultaneously whether these services are computerized (e.g. e-bay, OnSale.com, etc.) or manually operated (e.g. Sotheby""s, Christie""s, etc.). As the auction progresses, when a user bid is entered at one site or service, it is duplicated at the other sites or services where the item has been listed. The server process watches each site and creates a bid on the other sites in real-time that corresponds to the bid made at the first site. The bid replication technology revealed here assures that when the auctions are closed, the winning bid is the same at all sites, and that each bidder who has a right to purchase the item in question can be satisfied. By increasing the number of bids for an item and replicating bids across sites, the price will rise because bidders must compete against other bidders not only at their site, but at all sites on which the item is offered. By listing the item on multiple sites, the seller is gaining visibility for the item and has the most potential to receive the highest ultimate price.
It is also desirable to use the functionality of the service of this invention to provide an optimized method for a bidder to have the multi-auction service place coordinated bids at one or more of a plurality of networked remote auction services for a bidder to enable him to purchase those items at the optimal or lowest prices from the point of view of the bidder. Prior electronic art provides a means for a bidder to have an agent generate automatic bids according to pre-specified rules, which may be complex. However, each set of rules applies only to a single auction and considers bidding activity in only that auction. Contemporaneous bidding activity related to identical items, or similar items which are viable substitutes, occurring at other auctions are not considered. The service of this invention allows a bidder to place an order with the multi-auction service and have the multi-auction service coordinate a bidding strategy for an item or items across remote auction services in order to achieve an optimal result.
A system and method are disclosed for coordinating an auction for an item between a multi-auction service, a plurality of remote auction services, and a plurality of bidders, all of which are interconnected by a network. The multi-auction service performs the steps of receiving selling parameters for the item to be auctioned from a seller, transmitting the parameters for the item to a plurality of remote auction services, throughout the auction detecting that a bid for the item has been received by at least one of the remote auction services, determining which of the remote auction services should receive a replicated bid, and transmitting a replicated bid to each of the remote auction services so determined. In the case where more than one remote auction service receives a bid for the item, the multi-auction service detects that a bid for the item has been received by more than one of the remote auction services, establishes which of the received bids is an optimal bid for the item, and transmits the optimal bid as the replicated bid to each of the remote auction services.
A networked system is described for coordinating the sale of an item to an optimal bidder across a plurality of remote auction services, where the system comprises a networked multi-auction service system, a plurality of networked remote auction services, and a plurality of bidders. The multi-auction service comprises means for communicating with the plurality of remote auction services, means for replicating the item to be auctioned at the plurality of networked remote auction services, means for detecting a plurality of bids from a plurality of remote auction services, means for determining which of said plurality of detected bids is the optimal bid, and means for replicating the optimal bid across the plurality of remote auction services.
The remote auction services each comprise means for receiving selling parameters for the item to be auctioned from the multi-auction service, means for receiving bids for the item to be auctioned from the plurality of bidders and said multi-auction service, and means for updating the bid for the item to be auctioned.
Each of the plurality of bidders comprises means for bidding on the item to be auctioned at one of the remote auction services.
A method is additionally disclosed for allowing a bidder to communicate with a multi-auction service to request the multi-auction service to selectively place coordinated bids at one or more remote auction service(s) for a plurality of items where one item is desired. This method comprises the bidder specifying to the multi-auction service the item type to be bid upon, the bidder specifying to the multi-auction service the rules for bidding, the bidder or the multi-auction service determining which items at the remote auction services match the bidder requested item, the multi-auction service periodically checking each of the remote auction sites to determine which site and item to bid on, and the multi-auction service placing bids on the item specified at the remote auction services such that a unique and optimal bid is active at only one of the remote auction services at a moment in time and is placed according to the bidder specified rules. In another embodiment, the bidder may specify rules regarding the bidder""s preference for one or more identical, or similar, items sought.